Water we have plenty of. We can desalinate as much as we need to

Build subsurface wells and responsible brine dispersion infrastructure then come back and tell me we can desalinate as much as we need to.

If you put the brine back into the sea, and later put the waste water back into the same sea, doesn't it balance out? Also, the sea is pretty big.

Perhaps, but locally, the higher brine concentration will cause issues.

	▲	NewJazz 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, hence my use of the word "dispersion". Over a wide enough area, the brine shouldn't have a noticeable impact on sea life. But concentrated release can be really damaging.

aredox 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Nuclear reactors regularly shut down because the water from the nearby river is already too hot.

cbsmith 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah, but you need energy to desalinate so...

	▲	HPsquared 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		How does it compare to ~3000 L/MWh? I assume it's a rounding error. edit: Desalination uses 4 kWh per cubic metre of water. That is, it would yield 250,000 L/MWh.